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Zombie Nexus is a UK-based news and reviews site centred around the Hardware, Software, Gaming and Tweaking communities with a bit of randomness thrown in for good measure. The codebase for the site is based on PHPBB and various modifications to provide extra features. It is also a not-for-profit site meaning we have no plans in spoiling our design with ad-banners or evil pop-ups. The site has been re-branded several times, originally launching under the domain ZBN-UK.com, then changing to the slightly better ZBNUK.com and now residing at the more pronouceable ZombieNexus.com.

Who?

The site was conceived by Fraser Pearce (FraZor) and Andrew Fase (Andy). The original concept was the idea of FraZor but has been equally been moulded by Andy. Somehow they managed to meet in the middle and created this site. FraZor is responsible for the client-side aspects, such as HTML, javascript, design and usability. Andy was originally responsible for the databases and Back-end coding. Later on, HubCapMoon joined the fray to help out as editor and NightSpirit was taken on as content admin; serving as sub-editor, test-server maintainer, feature-tester and proving a great annoyance to the coding team by pointing out bugs . Andy retired from the site in mid-2003 to focus on enjoying life in the real world and NightSpirit was promoted to take over Andy's role. The current line-up is completed by our roving reporters: DemonKnight, Gragoyle, u4ric, nazgul and SilverFox.

When?

It was started in concept, around Christmas 2000, and the site first started taking shape towards the end of February 2001. By the end of 2001 the basic part of the ZomBieNet, the news part, was up and running on the web. The site has evolved and matured quite slowly since then. Forums were added in November of 2002 which provided a way of visitors to contribute to the site for the first time. In January 2003 several of the site members formed a gaming clan which provided an additional direction for a while until the clan was disbanded around the following September. Work didn't really pick up again till the following summer when Frazor and NightSpirit dug in their heels to push the next version to fruition in an effort to release a codebase that should ensure increased growth and activity. This is the site as it stands.

How?

They say knowledge is power, and power is current squared times resistance, and as we have encountered little resistance and have no squared currents, we don't have a lot of knowledge! But seriously... FraZor has a degree [BSc Honours] in Computer Science and Cybernetics from Reading University, UK. Andy has a degree [BSc Honours] in Computer Science from UMIST University, Manchester, UK. NightSpirit failed to get any qualifications from Leicester University which probably goes to explain his lack of coding skills However, along the way he met many intelligent people who introduced him to the wonderful world of Linux. That, coupled with an interest in computers sparked off at an early age by his father, encouraged him to take matters into his own hands and teach himself most of what he knows today.

Where?

FraZor, Andy and NightSpirit along with some of the other ZBN team were all born and bred in Enfield, London, UK. After the fun of university, Andy moved away to make his millions, but promised to send for FraZor when that happens. The rest of us stayed put, or atleast havn't strayed more than a stone's throw from Enfield. The other members hailing from a variety of English locations. Because of all this, the focus of this site has been and always will be centered in the UK. While we do cover some things happening in other areas of the world, we all still frown upon products being released in the UK 6 months after their USA release and companies that ignore our country completely!

Why?

Most of the people involved in this site are involved in the internet community in some way. Mainly in the Gaming, Hardware or Software communities. The biggest problem we found when browsing these areas of the web is that most of these sites (but not all) are US based: meaning they don't change very much during the more sociable hours here in the UK and also tend to seduce us with reviews of things that we later find out are not available in the UK . Additionally, we realised that we could not name a particular single site which summarised all of our needs, we have set out to fill that void.

What's with the name?

Well, it originated when we first started LAN gaming sometime in 1996 and needed to choose a workgroup name. Due to the band "White Zombie" being one of our favourite bands at the time, we ended up with "Zombienet". This name, and the initials ZBN, kinda stuck with us over the years. When it was time to launch the first version of the site, we purchased zombienet.co.uk to use for email but wanted a .com address for the actual site. zbn.com was (and still is) taken and so we added -UK to the domain to come up with ZBN-UK.com. Later on, we dropped this and bought ZBNUK.com when changing hosting companies. By the time we started creating version 3.0 of the site we had realised that ZBNUK was just not very pronouceable - too many people interpreted the name as "zub-nuk" or similar . So, after a poll and brainstorming session, we decided upon ZombieNexus.com which still keeps with the ZBN initials we have come to be associated with and should be straightforward enough to pronouce .